Clayborn Smith’s claim of torture was found credible by the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. 

CHICAGO — Clayborn Smith has spent decades in prison after three Chicago detectives tortured him into confessing to a double murder. On Tuesday, he was granted a new suppression hearing by the Appellate Court of Illinois, allowing him to challenge the admission of his coerced confession at trial. The decision reverses the Circuit Court’s decision to deny Mr. Smith’s claim despite overwhelming evidence that the Detectives Kenneth Boudreau, John Halloran and James O’Brien – all of whom were acolytes of the infamous Commander Jon Burge who oversaw “the nation’s longest running police brutality scandal” and was ultimately convicted for lying under oath about torturing people – had an established pattern of torturing and abusing people in their custody. 

 “Mr. Smith can’t get back the nearly 30 years he spent in prison but at long last, he will have the chance to show the court what has been clear for decades: his confession was tortured and the case against him was flawed from its inception,” said Megha Ram, an Appellate Attorney in the Supreme Court and Appellate Program at the MacArthur Justice Center, who is representing Mr. Smith in the Appellate Court. 

 Mr. Smith’s appeal was supported by several legal scholars, advocacy organizations and individuals, including the Chicago Torture Justice Center, the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, the NCAAP-Westside Branch, the Judicial Accountability Project, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, the Pilsen Alliance, the Chicago Democratic Socialist Assocation, the law firm Loevy & Loevy and Rep. Curtis J. Tarver II. 

 After spending 39 hours in the custody of Detectives Boudreau, Halloran and O’Brien, Mr. Smith confessed to the double murder of his grandfather and great-aunt. Before trial, he filed a motion to suppress his confession because it was the product of physical and mental abuse, but the presiding judge did not believe his allegations of abuse against the detectives and denied the motion. The judge admitted his confession at trial and convicted Mr. Smith.  

 In the years following Mr. Smith’s confession and conviction, the three detectives involved were accused of torturing dozens of other men into confessing. While many of those who survived torture by Burge and his subordinates were exonerated and released from prison, Clayborn continues to languish behind bars. 

 Two decades after Mr. Smith’s conviction, the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission determined that there was “sufficient evidence of torture” to conclude that his claim of torture was credible and merited judicial review, referring the case to the Circuit Court. But the Circuit Court rejected Mr. Smith’s claim for a new suppression hearing, holding he failed to “establish conclusively that the officers involved in [his] interrogation participated in systemic abuse.” 

 In its reversal of the Circuit Court’s decision, the Appellate Court said Mr. Smith’s new evidence showing that the same three detectives employed abusive tactics in other cases is “more than sufficient and give us great pause.” 

 “Contrary to the circuit court’s conclusion, we find defendant has produced sufficient evidence of a pattern on physical abuse by the detectives in question,” the Appellate Court wrote in its decision. 

 In Mr. Smith’s new suppression hearing, the state will have the burden of proving the confession was voluntary in front of a new judge on remand.  

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The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center is a national, nonprofit legal organization dedicated to protecting civil rights and fighting injustice in the criminal legal system through litigation at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels. www.macarthurjustice.org